6 things that can trigger a seizure even if you don’t have epilepsy

Harrison Ford has played a hero in the movies, but in real life, he gives that distinction to his 26-year-old daughter, Georgia. Last month, the actor revealed that Georgia has epilepsy, and that it took years for her to get the proper treatment.

“I admire her perseverance, her talent, her strength,” he told the Daily News.

Epilepsy isn’t always easy to identify. The disorder typically isn’t diagnosed until a person has had two or more “unprovoked” seizures—that is, seizures that don’t have a clear trigger, explained Dr. Vikram Rao, PhD, an assistant professor of neurology at the University of California, San Francisco.

It turns out there are multiple things that can trigger a seizure, which is essentially a surge of electrical activity in the brain. And just because you have one, that doesn’t mean you’ve got epilepsy. But you should always get checked out by a doctor afterwards, Rao said.

Here, six things that are known to trigger seizures even in people who don’t have a neurological condition—and what to do when a seizure strikes.